amazon, google

IE10 and Do Not Track: ineffective with Amazon ads

6 Comments

I set up Windows 8 on my desktop PC, accepting the default Do Not Track setting. This is still set:

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However I noticed Amazon ads served by Google/DoubleClick on a third-party site that reflected my recent activity on Amazon. I clicked the Privacy link on the ad (which links to Amazon rather than Google) and found this:

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Note that this is not an Amazon account setting. The wording makes it clear that it is a browser setting, which you have to make for every browser you use.

Because your selection above is managed through HTTP cookies, if you delete these cookies or use a different browser, you will have to make this same selection again.

Clearly it also defaults to “personalisation” despite IE 10 being set to request “Do not track”.

Kudos to Amazon for offering an opt-out; but no kudos for ignoring that I have already made a choice by sending a Do Not Track header.

Note there is no legal requirement to respect the Do Not Track header.

6 thoughts on “IE10 and Do Not Track: ineffective with Amazon ads”

  1. I can count on the toes of one foot the websites that look for DNT; I can count on the toes of one snake he binding decisions made about what DNT actually means for users & sites.

  2. Your title’s a little misleading – what does this have to do with IE10? The same is true of Firefox or any other browser that sets the DNT flag, surely? Better to say, “Amazon ignores Do Not Track”?

  3. I expect that once Windows 8 is released to the public, most websites that use tracking cookies will drop all pretense of respecting Do Not Track. The IE10 default is a most convenient scapegoat.

  4. It’s actually quite sad. DNT used to be user initiated and so could be respected by web owners. But now it’s a decision made by a corporation, Microsoft, to detract money from the internet, where it has failed, and give more importance to the desktop environment, with its appshop and its mysterious measures, in the name of security, that won’t allow dual linux installs.

  5. I have to agree, making DNT default to on is going to seriously discourage websites from obeying it.

    Its supposed to be a user choice option, so they should at LEAST ask you the first time you load IE10 if you want the option on or off.

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